Computer systems, whether large or small, all have memory as a part thereof. This memory is in static and dynamic form. The contents of dynamic memories are lost when power to such memories is shut off. Static memory contents are not lost when power goes off and is in different forms such as ROM (read-only-memory), floppy diskette magnetic memory, large capacity hard disk magnetic memory, and bubble memory. Hard disk magnetic memory is often used in a computer system for file storage and the files are usually assigned fixed amounts of storage space. There is a need in the art for an arrangement by which an administrative file in memory, that keeps track of other files, may analyze itself and will appropriate more idle memory space on the hard disk for its use as necessary.
In the prior art typically a given amount of memory space is allocated to a file wherein to store data, and that amount of memory space inflexible so that even if all the space is not required, remaining space is wasted. Therefore, there is never any real need to compress the binary information stored in this inflexible memory space. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for techniques to compress data stored in hard disk memory in order to maximize the amount of data that may be stored on the disk.